Practice notes and observations - Aug 12

[JasonB]

Went to practice this morning and thought I would share some thoughts... there were about 6 players in yellow and 4 in green. I don't recognize players, and those jerseys didn't have numbers, so I can't comment much other than C Davis and Sutton and X Jones must have been among them - those guys didn't play at all.

PRE-SCRIMMAGE OBSERVATIONS:
Starting with the defense:
- Biggurs looks like he has grown up. He doesn't looks skinny anymore. First thing I noticed.
- in warmups, a lot of a 3-4 look. In the scrimmage it was all 4-3.
- 1st team was Mixon, Gary, Lawler, someone in yellow, McQueen, Rhone, J Williams, , Lancaster, Wyatt, K Johnson, Onu. So, obviously, McQueen was lining up as an LB in that formation. He and J Williams would be a small pairing but super quick. This may have just been for warmups, because K MItchell played first string in scrimmage at that spot.
- 2nd team was Horton, Jones, D Scott (91 mixed in), Duke, McNew, Hailey, Jeanlys, Guy-Robinson, Clark, Rock, 34? Whoever 34 was got on the field a lot during the scrimmages also in the 2nd and third team and looked like he was playing LB.
- Mustang drill was fun to watch. 72 - Jones - really looks the part at DT and dominated his matchup several times. Really impressed by Jones overall.

Offense warmups:
- Quinn, Thomas, and West back on KO Return.
- McQueen twisted his ankle on the KO Return practice and sat out the rest of the practice
- Quinn was punt returner. Sackville punted once and it was awful. Melvin punted once and it wasn't the longest, but decent length, super high, and no return possible.
- QBs as a whole look a lot crisper in warmups.
- Instant scout for Peavy: he is much smaller than the other quarterbacks. He throws the ball okay, but was a little bit off his throws. He is clearly running third right now.
- Instant scout for Hicks: he is first. Not a lot of time in the scrimmage. Seems more consistent, more accurate than last year. Looks poised, in control. Not great, but more consistent and put nice touch on a couple passes.
- Instant scout for Gillins: Clearly second team right now. He has a cannon of his arm, and has accuracy. Very tight spiral at high speed. Struggles to put arc under the ball. When he throws deep on a line, it is a strike. When he throws deep with air under it, he gets a wobble and his length and accuracy suffer. He will have to adjust and be able to put more air under the ball to get it up and over the line and over linebackers. Slant, short out he can throw very well. He looks great over the middle with no defenders. With the way he throws, might not be the best QB for Sutton?
- Instant scout for Upshaw: Clearly the weakest arm. wobbles on even short passes. Came out of a running system and it shows. That said, he was much, much better in the scrimmage than during warmups. Honestly, might have outplayed Peavy in the scrimmage. Shows some good touch, and was interesting to see a frosh direct WR to where they were supposed to be when they didn't line up correctly. Will be interesting to see if he develops arm strength over his freshman year and what he looks like in the Spring.

1v1 drills: corners versus WR
- First play, hicks a really nice pass to the sideline for Sutton, playing against Wyatt. Wyatt had very good coverage, but Sutton still made the catch 20 yards downfield, jumping and reaching above wyatt to get the ball and still getting feet down. Wyatt twisted his knee a little on the play, but came back during the scrimmage portion.
- Instant scout - Honey. Honey has always been tall and fast. Today was the first time I thought he looked like a receiver. He made a nice move inside then out to beat Jeanlys and looked very fluid doing so. Is obviously being lined up to replace Sutton next year and back him up this year and looks the part.
- Hicks made another really nice throw to Shelmire with nice touch on it as well. Most consistent I have seen Hicks throw.

SCRIMMAGE NOTES:
- Overall impression - the d-line absolutely blew up the offensive line all day long. First and second team d-line against the first team o-line was won by the d-line consistently. All the talk about being deep on the d-line is very accurate. Jones and Gary in particular look to me like they are going to be fantastic. I think our o-line is at worst average in conference and they got dominated. The d-line is going to go a long way in making our defense much better this season.
- HIcks started
- Starting D: Lawler, Biggurs, Gary, Mixon, K MItchell, Rhone, J Williams, Lancaster, Wyatt, Onu, K Johnson
- Second DL: Horton, Jones, Davis, Neals
- Starting OL: Wilds, Todora, Brown, Natour, Pursley
- Second OL: Hopkins, Printz, Howerton, Barton, Smith. Barton looks tiny?
- Starting WR: Sutton, Proche, Quinn
- 2nd WR: Honey, Page, Gailliard
- Shelmire got a lot of reps and was a preferred target when his group was in.
- Medlock had the two best runs of the scrimmage. Shows very nice quickness through the line. Will be very good moving forward.
- When it was 1s versus 1s, the defense won every time because the QB had no chance.
- When it was 2s versus 2s, the defense won just about every time because the QB had no chance.
- The offense was able to have time against the third string defense and was able to move the ball.
- Peavey threw a bad pick to Lancaster. Someone else should have picked it off early, but it went through their hands to Lancaster, who made the pick. Bad read and a bad pass.
- Mitchell made a couple of nice plays behind the line.
- LBs much more active on the blitz. The defensive line was so dominant they could make plays.
- Peavy nice pass to Becker in back of endzone for a TD, but that was 3rd versus 3rd.
- 4 versus 2 - Upshaw did a nice job leading them down the field. Looks for Shelmire a lot.
- Mostly 3rd and 4th team O and 2nd and 3rd string D after first 4 possessions.
- Gillins nice TD to Judah Bell over the middle.
- Guillard caught two straight passes from Peavey, second one for a TD. The first one was longer to put them in a GL situation, but Rock should have picked off the pass, but his head wasn't up, he was just running to Guillard.
- Gillins had a really nice touch pass to Shelmire for a TD on the left side. Shelmire beat is man off the line by a couple steps, and had lots of space. But that was the one arc Gillians threw that had good accuracy and no wobble.

All in all, the d-line looked very good. I didn't see any "oh my god, how did he miss that" throws from QBs, which I felt I saw a lot of in the spring. A little worried that the 1st and second string O couldn't move the ball against our 4th(Lancaster), 5th(Jeanlys) and 6th (29) best corners. But I think that was due to the pressure as much as anything else. The d is usually ahead of the O early in camp.

Starting next week, I would expect the 1s and 2s to see the field for the most part. Definitely the 4s won't see time, and I would expect 3s restricted as well. This was their last big chance to move up the depth chart and compete for 1st or second team. I think Shelmire probably showed enough to continue to get looks, as well as Medlock in case of injury. Peavy might continue to be in the mix, but I would guess attention will turn pretty quickly to see if Hicks can stave off Gillins for the job. I think he will, just because I think he throws a better ball for Sutton. But Gillins has come an impressively long way in just two weeks of camp, so he definitely has a shot.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Thank you for the report!

[Fresno Mustang]

Great report thank you. Did K Thomas play at wide receiver at all ? What about E sutton at DB?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mrydel]

Listening to Coach Morris, I would respectfully say he does not agree with your QB analysis. But I am not there.

[78pony]

Great report. Thank you!

[horsemanx]

Listening to Coach Morris, I would respectfully say he does not agree with your QB analysis. But I am not there.

I am sure your guy Peavy will get his fair chance at some point don't worry.

[mrydel]

He is not my guy. I am just familiar with him because I live in Arkansas. I am very interested in how Gillens will play, but happy with Hicks' progress especially with his weight loss and hopefully the coach will let him run occasionally on the zone read since we do have capable backups.

[One Trick Pony]

He is not my guy. I am just familiar with him because I live in Arkansas. I am very interested in how Gillens will play, but happy with Hicks' progress especially with his weight loss and hopefully the coach will let him run occasionally on the zone read since we do have capable backups.

sounds like Bridge of spies

[ALEX LIFESON]

Listening to Coach Morris, I would respectfully say he does not agree with your QB analysis. But I am not there.

Is there a video interview with Coach Morris after practice?

[mrydel]

On Facebook

[JasonB]

Listening to Coach Morris, I would respectfully say he does not agree with your QB analysis. But I am not there.

If you listen to his comments, he says very positive things about all 4 of the QBs. But I can assure you that Peavey was clearly running with the 3s and Gillins was 2. And it was very clear that HIcks has separated himself as the 1.

Peavey was playing against the 3rd string D. So he actually had time to throw . He had some nice throws, and he also had the worst throw of the day.

All of that said, all of the quarterbacks looked much better than Hicks or Peavey did back in the spring. Certainly improvement across the board in terms of accuracy.

To the other point - KT was there. Looks really fit. But is running third string WR right now. There is a ton of talent out there. Same with Benson. Just buried, nothing negative against them. KT was running back at one point in the mustang drill which was interesting to see, and actually had a nice cutback for a TD.

E Sutton did not play - that was who I meant above .

I forgot the quote of the day. Courtland Sutton picks up a ball rolling around after an incompletion, squeezes it, and says "Damn, that's one of those Tom Brady balls". Really funny, and perhaps an indication that they are still releasing air in the ball for Hicks.

[LA_Mustang]

good report. I thought Gillins was clearly the best QB.

I have no idea why Sutton isn't in the NFL right. He is going to give AAC DCs nightmares. He will be worth the price of admission alone this year.

Delontae Scott is HUGE! In a good way.

[ALEX LIFESON]

I didn't catch the whole scrimmage, but I saw a bit from the far end of the field. Between the green shirts, yellow shirts and guys in bubble wrap, it did appear that most of the players were 2nd and 3rd teamers, battling for a spot on the depth chart. Almost all of the running plays were from walkons. In the secondary, Rodney Clemons and Christian Davis have been nicked up most of camp, Eric Sutton was out today as well. I think the #34 at safety Jason B referred to was 5'9 walkon Brice Madison. As Jason mentioned, Harrison Barton, looked smaller than the listed 6'3 to me as well. Juco DT Pono Davis had his way with the second team line. Quick swim move got him into the backfield to stuff the runner, and he collapsed the pocket on a number of pass plays. Also, it appears 6'7 Hunter Thedford has been moved to TE. Hicks and Peavey are both listed at 6'1....I would guess Peavey is 6'0 at most. Hicks does look improved from last season, but Gillins is trending upwards. He has the strongest arm of all the qb's, and I saw him make check drown completions to his 2nd and 3rd receivers.....which is big.

[mrydel]

Don't think Peavy is 6'. Gillian's sounds very intriguing but I am more excited about the progress and rebuild of Hicks. With depth he might be able to play freely enough to do very well. So nice to have options.

[PonyPride]

Listening to Coach Morris, I would respectfully say he does not agree with your QB analysis. But I am not there.

Is there a video interview with Coach Morris after practice?

Yes:
Link to VIDEOS